April ii, 1908.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
Law Enforcement in Minnesota. 
Biwabik, Minn. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
From accounts in your late issues, I find that 
from all parts of the country the ruffed grouse 
are fast passing away. This is the case in this 
immediate vicinity, as well as in all the settled 
portions of the Mesaba and Vermillion Ranges. 
The real cause for their rapid extinction should 
lie readily apparent to those that will take the 
time to notice as to what is going on around 
them, especially those who spend a portion of 
their time in the woods each year. 
This part of Minnesota is noted for its vast 
deposits of iron ore, the marketing of which re¬ 
quires the labor of thousands of men. To supply 
this labor it becomes necessary to import men, 
and many of the lowest type of foreigners are 
annually unloaded in the iron districts. In their 
mother country these men are forbidden to pos¬ 
sess any kind of fire arms. For the very things 
they were deprived of previous to their arrival 
in this “land of the free,’’ each male member of 
a family spends his first earnings, buying a pot 
metal shotgun. On holidays and Sundays they 
scour the woqds and kill any and everything that 
dares show itself. They do not confine them¬ 
selves to holidays and Sundays either, for there 
is employed at the mines a night and day shift, 
and those who work at the night shift spend a 
part of the day in the woods with fatal results 
to any of the feathered tribe. Almost anything 
is meat for their kettles. When we add to this 
destruction, unfavorable conditions for hatching 
and rearing the young, and the inroads of their 
natural enemies, the fox, wolf, lynx, owl and 
other destructive birds and animals, it is a won¬ 
der that there is any left to show that such birds 
ever existed. 
On many occasions we have been blessed with 
game wardens who did nothing but stand around 
and look wise, their hardest work, being to draw 
their salaries. A great many of them secure ap¬ 
pointments by having a political pull with some 
one who has sufficient influence wi'h the powers 
that be, to land the job for them. 1 have known 
of instances where those officials were so watch¬ 
ful that any violation of the game laws brought 
down upon the culprit sure and certain prosecu¬ 
tion, as the nearest justice of the peace was re¬ 
sorted to and the proper sentence meted out. 
After a few months of strenuous work of this 
kind, these hustling fellows were served with 
notice that they would be put on commission 
after a certain date. Any one who is in touch 
with the situation, knows that no man could 
make a living on commissions collected from 
tines of this kind, as too many of the violators 
have no money with which to pay fines, and go 
to jail. 
After a few cases of this kind the warden 
quits his job, then the pot-hunters get busy. The 
laws of this State are adequate for the protec¬ 
tion of the game if properly enforced, and not 
until the present laws are enforced by men who 
are interested in such matters can we expect the 
game to hold its own. 
A great deal of this district is fit for nothing 
but game animals to roam over, and a proper 
enforcement of the laws will perpetuate the game. 
Ruffalo and deer of the Middle West had to give 
way to the advance of agricultural interests, but 
this district is fit for nothing of the kind, and 
there are portions that never will be of any use 
for such. Hay is about the only thing that can 
be raised on many acres of this land which can 
be produced without tilling the soil, consequently 
there will be plenty of room for game to roam 
this district for many years. 
Our hunting license law it seems is a little un¬ 
fair to the non-resident in not allowing him to 
take out of the State the game he secures. 
We get his $25, and keep his kill, except one 
deer, which is not doing the fair thing by him. 
This causes a great deal of complaining on the 
part of those who come into the State to spend 
their outings each year. I think they have just, 
cause for complaint. Of course they do not have 
to come here, but it seems like building a Chinese 
wall around the State, and saying to a man, you 
can buy our goods but you cannot take them 
away. 
During my last season’s hunt I saw very few 
grouse; in fact not over a dozen, and this in a 
part of the country where it has been no unusual 
thing to see fifty or more in a single day of the 
season. One reason for this is that saw mills 
are put on the rivers, which employ many men 
who, as a rule, have not much regard for the 
law protecting the game, and who make it a 
point to get all the game birds they can from the 
time they are able to fly until the snow gets so 
deep that hunting is hard work. Stop this kind 
of business then the grouse will, increase ma¬ 
terially. P. J. Nomlas. 
The Costly Song Birds of Watertown. 
On Sunday, March 29, Sheriff Bellinger was 
advised from Huntingtonville, N. Y., that sev¬ 
eral Italians were engaged in hunting song birds 
along the Black River railroad. After an effort 
to locate Game Protector Williams, the sheriff 
and another man started for Huntingtonville to 
hunt Italians. Arrived there they soon came 
upon one of the gunners who had just shot a 
meadow lark. 
When the Italian saw the sheriff he took to 
5 77 
flight, but was soon arrested, and found to have 
in his possession a robin and a meadow lark. 
The Italian was sent to jail in charge of the 
sheriff’s companion, and the sheriff with Game 
Protector Williams, who had just turned up, 
soon discovered five more Italians, four of them 
with new double barrel shotguns, while the fifth 
carried a single barrel gun. In the possession 
of these hunters were found three dead ground 
birds and three robins. 
The Italians were taken to the jail, their guns 
confiscated, and later they were taken to the 
residence of Justice of the Peace Emerson where 
they plead guilty and were fined $36.50 each, 
which was duly collected from them. It is con¬ 
ceivable that the hunting ardor of these children 
of sunny Italy is less in April than it was in 
March. 
Law Breaking in Connecticut. 
Milford, Conn., March 30.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Although the last Legislature made 
duck shooting in this State illegal after the first 
of January, I am sorry to report that there are 
people in this town who are more or less openly 
violating the law. I am told that black ducks 
are being regularly shot at the Gulf Pond, and 
the name of the person shooting them is men¬ 
tioned, but I suppose no legal evidence against 
him is in the'possession of anyone. I believe, 
however, that the proper authorities, if they had 
energy enough to undertake it, might easily 
enough capture this man. 
In view of the different articles that have 
lately appeared in Forest and Stream about the 
likelihood of wild ducks breeding here in New 
York, New Jersey and Connecticut, if they are 
let alone in spring, I have been hoping that 
we might have a few birds raised here this year, 
and perhaps more the summer after, and that 
the autumn shooting might be better than it has 
been for a long time. Gunner. 
BY THE REEDY BANK. 
From the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News. 
